NATO flag waves in Warsaw on March 12, 2024. (Photo by WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
NATO allies are conducting anti-submarine warfare exercises near Iceland without U.S. ships or aircraft participating for the first time in the maritime operation in decades, Politico reported Saturday.
German reconnaissance aircraft, Canadian warships, and Belgian fighter jets took part in a Northern Viking maritime operation under French command, practicing how to locate Russian submarines and defend the strategically important North Atlantic.
Two years ago, the exercises included two U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships carrying Marines and aircraft, according to Politico.
The drills center on the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom, or, GIUK, gap, a strategic passage used by Russian submarines moving from bases on the Kola Peninsula into the Atlantic.
“For NATO and for Russia, this is really a dividing line,” a senior NATO official told the outlet.
“For the Russians, if they can control access to that gap, and get their submarines on the other side of it, then they’ve got free reign of the Atlantic.”
The absence of U.S. forces comes as the Trump administration has pushed NATO members to assume a greater share of responsibility for their own defense, both through increased military spending and greater efforts to protect alliance territory and borders.
NATO members agreed at their 2025 summit in The Hague to invest 5% of GDP annually in defense and security-related needs by 2035, including at least 3.5% for core military requirements.
NATO says European allies and Canada increased defense expenditures by nearly 20% in real terms in 2025.
The Iceland exercises offer a practical example of European and Canadian allies taking on greater operational responsibility.
NATO has been strengthening its regional defense plans, eastern flank, and protection of critical undersea infrastructure while increasing the frequency and scale of military exercises.
The exercises also come as U.S. naval resources are committed elsewhere, leaving Canadian and European vessels with a larger role in North Atlantic patrols.
NATO officials have stressed that the alliance continues to exercise with U.S. forces even as European members take on more responsibility for regional security.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.